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SPC tender bender?

24 Jun 2019

By Sarah Hannan The State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) has been accused of failing to follow proper procedures during the awarding of a tender when purchasing essential medical supply consignments. The issue had been raised through Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) using the Right to Information (RTI) Act, where an RTI form was submitted under reference no. bearing MH/PB/04/RTI/17 on 15 February 2019. Designated Information Officer for the Procurement Division and Ministry of Health, Nutrition, and Indigenous Medicine Additional Secretary (Procurement) Y.L.M. Navavi had acknowledged the request which was forwarded by TISL. The incident in reference to the RTI request had been filed over the purchasing of cefuroxime sodium injection vials, which saw nine bidders contesting for the tender. Observing the technical evaluation report that was made available after the RTI, it was quite clear that the bid had been awarded to GlaxoSmithKline – its unit price for the injection vial was the highest at Rs. 388.55 – who had been the only bidder that complied with bid specifications with the item being recommended and marked responsive. However, subsequently, Yaden International (Pvt.) Ltd., the local agent for Inject Care Parenterals (Pvt.) Ltd., had appealed to the technical evaluation committee by paying the appeal fee of Rs. 100,000 to reconsider their bid and was later awarded the bid. Yaden International had priced a unit at Rs. 49.47 and was initially marked for not complying with the specifications and special conditions for tendering, with the item not recommended and marked non-responsive. If the injection vials were purchased from the previous bidder, the Government would have spent Rs. 1,554,200,000 to purchase 4,000,000 vials of cefuroxime sodium for injection (750 mg), whereas the next bidder awarded the tender offered the same consignment at a cost of Rs. 197,886,000 – saving Rs. 1,356,314,000 in government funds. Standard procedure The due process for any international pharmaceutical company intending to supply pharmaceuticals to Sri Lanka must have a local agent. Furthermore, the company’s manufacturing facility should be registered at the National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA), and the product that is requested too should be registered at the NMRA. At the point of registration with the NMRA, the product is tested for its quality, safety, and effectiveness. Not only is the formula of the medicine taken into consideration, but also the way it has been packed and labelled. Apart from that, the product should comply with the British or American Pharmacopoeia which is better known as BP/USP. “When the concerned bidder had proposed their bid documents, the sample submitted to the State Pharmaceuticals Corporation (SPC) was a single-glass vile of cefuroxime sodium for injection (750 mg), individually packed along with the required labelling et al. However, the SPC had required 50 units of the product to be submitted in a box. From time to time, special conditions are changed, and while an individually packed single product is sufficient for the bidding process, the required 50 samples seemed to be unnecessary for the purpose of evaluation,” an official from TISL told The Sunday Morning. Bid re-awarded Observing the Technical Evaluation Report, The Sunday Morning noticed that the bid entry of Inject Care Parenterals (Pvt.) Ltd. was rejected and marked non-responsive for the same reasons as the bidding party that raised the concern and filed the RTI application through TISL. In order to get a better understanding about the procurement guidelines that are followed, The Sunday Morning contacted National Procurement Commission Secretary General W.D. Jayasinghe. When asked whether any special conditions could be drafted into the bid requirements that are floated by ministries or state-owned corporations, Jayasinghe noted: “The conditions are drawn by the procuring entity based on the bid requirement, and the provisions are made to be fair and reasonable to all the bidders. Those conditions should not be restrictive towards the potential bidders or favour just one entity.” Jayasinghe further stated that should a bidder view the special conditions listed as unreasonable, they can always raise the concern with the National Procurement Commission. First registration at NMRA Meanwhile, the NMRA said that prospective importers of pharmaceutical and surgical products to Sri Lanka are required to register with the NMRA prior to submitting the bid proposals. “In case of an international supplier, they are to register the product through their local agent. When the local agent applies for product registration, it goes through a pharmaceutical evaluation. Then, the sample is sent for analysis. Following the analysis, a report of the sample will be forwarded to the Medicines Evaluation Committee (MEC) that will discuss and decide whether the product can be approved for registration. A qualifying product will receive a certificate of registration valid for five years,” NMRA Chairman Prof. Asitha De Silva stated. Prof. De Silva also noted that the MEC carry out technical reviews, inspections, and surveillance activities of the medicines forwarded for registration to ensure the quality, efficacy, safety, need, and cost of such medicines. The MEC consist of experts drawn from various specialties in the medical and pharmaceutical fields who meet monthly to decide on applications submitted for marketing authorisation of medicines, and to make policy decisions relevant to marketing authorisation of medicines. He further stated that a certified copy of the registration certificate of the product is a compulsory document that needs to be attached when applying for a bid at SPC.

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